" Iu the sacristy three large jars were filled with the purest oil and set ai)art, carefully covered with veil;^. When the archbishop descended from the altar, and took his seat at the table, the aichdeacon cried alond, 'Olenm lutirmoruni.' Then one of the seven acting as subdea- cous went, with two acolytes, to the sacristy, aud returned with the Oil for the Sick, which he delivered to the aich- deacon, saying 'Oleum Inlinnornm.' The archdeacon, repeating the same words, presented it to the archbish- op, who, rising up, first solemnly exorcised the oil, and then blessed it in the solemn words of the Church. The oil wMs then removed to the sacristy aud carefully guard- ed. The archbishop, after washing his hands, reascoiided the altar aud continued the mass as usual, nntil that part of it known as the Ablutions, when he again descended to the table to consecrate the remaining oils. A proces- sion of all the clergymen, acting as deacons and subdea- cous, was formed and proceeded to the sacristy. They returned iu the same manner, bearing the oils and chant- ing the verses of the hymn 'O Redemptor.' Much the same ceremony as already described was then gone through. The archbishop breathed over the oil, in the form of a cross, aud all the priests taking part in the con- secration did the same. On his knees he saluted the chrism with the words Ave Sanr.tinn Chrisma, pronounced three times with increasius emphasis. The priests did the same, and the consecration of the Oil of the Catechu- mens followed in the same manner."
The Church of Constantinople has likewise three dif- ferent kinds of oil : (1) the oil of catechumens, which is simply blessed by the priest in the baptismal ofiice; (2) the 6('';^£'/\oio)', or prayer-oil, for the visitation of the sick, blessed in the sick man's house by seven priests; (3) the ayiov fivpoi', solemnly consecrated by the bish- op on Thursday in Holy Week. Of these two latter kinds there is enough said in the article Chuis.m; on the first, see C.vtechu.mkns. The Greeks have besides two other kinds of holy oil: (1) that which is used for the lamps before the images of saints, and which is blessed by the priest in the office of benediction of the loaves. " It was the custom that in certain festivals the brethren in monasteries should be anointed with this oil; and it was in some instances mixed with the water blessed on the Epiphany, and used for sprinkling olive-yards or vineyanls, for the purpose of freeing them from blight. (2) Oil of the holy cross, which appears, for the matter is doubtful, to have been originally taken from the lamps which burned in the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem before the true cross, and afterwards to have been consecrated by the immersion in it of a piece of the same cross." See Barmim, Romanism, p. 473 sq.; Neale, IJkt. Eastern Church, Introd. p. 900; Sie- gel, Christl. Alterthiimer, iv, 125; Mcnzel, Symholik, ii.
from top to bottom. In this groove moved the plank on the top of the olive "cheeses," farced down by a beam, as a lever, acting against the huge stone on the top of the columns. There is also traceable the stone trough into which the oil ran, and close by are immense basins in which the olives were ground to a pulp by the stone wheel that was rolled over them. Other basins, smaller and more concave, may have served for treading out the olives with the feet (Mic. vi, 15), a process now never emploj-ed iu Palestine. See Mill.
The modern machines for oil-making are thus de- scribed by Thomson {Land and Book, i, 523): "The ma'serah is workeil by hand, and is only used for the olives which fall first in autumn, before tlie rains of winter raise the brooks which drive the mutriif. The olives for the ma'serah are ground to a pulp in circular stone basins by rolling a large stone wheel over them. The mass is then put into small baskets of straw-work, which are placed one upon another, between two up- right posts, and pressed Ijy a screw which moves in the beam or entablature from above, like the screw in the standing-press of a bookbinder, or else by a beam-lever. After this first pressing the pulp is taken out of the baskets, put into large copper pans, and, being sprinkled with water, is heated over a fire, and again pressed as before. This finishes the process, and the oil is put away in jars to use, or iu cisterns, to be kept for i'uture market. The mutriif is driven like an ortlinary mill, except that the apparatus for beating up the olives is an upright cylinder, with iron cross-bars at the lower end. This cylinder turns rapidly in a hollow tube of stone -work, into which the olives are thrown from above, and beaten to a pulp by the revolving cross-bars. The interior of the tulie is kept hot, so that the mass is taken out below sufficiently heated to cause the oil to run freely. The same baskets are used as in the ma''se- rah, but the press is a beam-lever, with heavy weights at the end. This process is repeated a second time, as in the ma\^erah, and then the refuse is thrown awaj'." He adds, "Beam-presses .are also employed in the nia'«e- rah to this day, and I think that the use of screws is quite modern. No process is employed for clarifying the oil, except to let it gradually settle on the lees in the cisterns or large jars in which it is kept. Certain villages are celebrated all over the country for produc- ing oil particularly clear and sweet, and it commands a high price for table use ; Berjah, for example, above Nebi Yunas, also Deir Mimas in the Merj Ayiin, and at